By Angus Thompson
Transport Minister Catherine King is refusing to front an inquiry into her rejection of Qatar Airways’ bid for more flights in Australia, accusing the Coalition of staging a political stunt.
Liberal senator Simon Birmingham says the federal opposition will pursue other means to reveal the reasons behind her ruling, which erupted into a political storm last month amid speculation over national airline Qantas’ sway over government decisions.
Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
King said it was a longstanding practice that House of Representatives members did not appear before Senate committees, adding Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had once taken the same position, and criticised inquiry chair and Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie’s pursuit of answers.
“While Senator McKenzie is wasting time on a political stunt, I am spending time doing the hard work the Coalition never did to set our aviation sector up for the future,” King said.
Birmingham, who is also on the committee conducting the inquiry, called King’s refusal a “double snub” after her office last week declined to inform Department of Transport bureaucrats about whether she had met with former Qantas chief Alan Joyce on a particular occasion.
“This is the height of evasiveness from a minister who should be accountable for the decisions she makes, but is instead hiding from scrutiny,” Birmingham said.
Liberal senator Simon Birmingham has accused King of being evasive.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“It was Catherine King’s refusal or inability to explain her decision to deny Qatar Airways additional flights which lead to a select Senate committee being established in the first place.
“The Coalition will be asking the Senate to look at other means to make this minister reveal what lobbying resulted in her rejecting departmental advice to approve the extra flights, thereby making Australians pay more for flights and costing our tourism industry billions in income.”
One avenue is to ask the Senate to request the lower house to grant King leave to appear before the committee.
King – who was on two weeks’ leave while the inquiry was underway – has claimed public interest immunity over documents, including departmental advice, relating to her decision, which bureaucrats fronting the committee said forbade them from going into details.
Qatar executives Matt Rao and Fathi Atti told the inquiry last week the airline was “surprised and shocked” by King’s rejection, which she has repeatedly said was done in the national interest, cited the strip-searching of Australian women at Doha Airport in October 2020 as one of the reasons.
Travel industry and competition experts have argued that, had Qatar’s application been granted, the extra flights would have brought down airfares and added up to $1 billion a year to the Australian economy.
McKenzie said last week that Joyce would be summonsed to appear before the committee after he declined to appear due to having overseas commitments, implying that he could face the threat of jail if he failed to comply.
Joyce’s replacement, Vanessa Hudson, appeared alongside Qantas chair Richard Goyder, both facing a series of hostile questions over a string of recent controversies engulfing the airline including a consumer watchdog investigation into allegations of selling tickets to cancelled flights, and a High Court decision affirming the carrier had illegally sacked 1700 workers in 2020.
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